The Triple Duos
by Sophia Hawkins
Summary: Batman and Robin are in for one of their biggest challenges when they take on the teamed up Joker and Penguin, and find out the truth about the young hostages they've taken in their latest crime.
1. Chapter 1

The Triple Duos

In the dark of night, the city seemed to sleep, _seem_ being the operative word because few people in Gotham ever actually spent their nights sleeping. Anymore a lot of the residents lay awake in fear for their lives, because despite the effort of the Caped Crusaders in putting away the worst criminals that existed, they always found a way to break out from their barred cells and padded rooms and return to their businesses. On one particular night, the sky was as dark as midnight though it was only 9 o' clock, the blackness of the sky made for a perfect contrast of the bright round light that filled the night air, in the center, the figure of a bat.

Batman and Robin had been on their toes all week with trying to locate the recently prison broken Joker and Penguin, who somehow had been managing to pull of a number of incredible bank heists all through the town, and get away without being caught, and when the police followed, they were met with an unexplainable explosion that blocked off the getaway path for the longest time. Once the smoke finally cleared and the road was safe to pass on, there was no sign of the criminal masterminds, their henchmen, or the automobile used in the getaway, not even so much as a tire mark on the road.

The Caped Crusaders had investigated every road used in these getaways, from the banks that had been held up to the very point where the explosions occurred, finding absolutely nothing that would give them any idea what had happened or where they had gone. After that they searched beyond the explosion lines and searched in every direction by land and air hoping to find something – anything, that might help them ensue in capturing the Joker and Penguin, but no matter how far and how hard they searched, they found nothing. To pull off such events and leave not so much as a trace of evidence, was such an enigma to the average and beyond average minds, that Batman questioned whether or not they had also pulled the Riddler, who had also escaped during a Gotham prison break, into this as well.

The very idea of the three criminal masterminds working together was enough to make even him cringe. One working alone was trouble enough, two teamed up was good reason for a public panic, three working together could only result in mass destruction and chaos, the very things that kept these figures of criminal scum, going. Neither Batman nor Robin said a word amongst themselves or to each other as they headed to the police, both dreaded what they might hear when they arrived tonight.

The Batmobile reached Gotham City Police Headquarters and they went and were soon met by Commissioner Gordon, who reluctantly explained that there was yet another case involving the criminal duo.

"I hate to be the one to tell you this but there's been another crime committed by the Penguin and Joker," he said.

"Another bank?" Batman asked.

"No, this is involving the bank robbery they committed yesterday morning near the edge of town," he explained.

That particular branch of Gotham's banking system, it was reported in yesterdays' news broadcast, had been held up and cleaned out of a cool half million, with a getaway identical to those clever ruses of the previous heists. Batman and Robin had met a severely dead end on a hard dirt road at the explosion mark to that one, several miles away from civilization where the road ended was as good as the edge of a cliff, with a gap of near eight feet in width between it and the hard ground across from it, the gap being at least a 1000 foot drop. They had crossed the gap only to find nothing, which made this case no different from all the rest.

"Whoever they had for cellmates in prison clearly taught them a few new tricks," Batman commented.

"Unfortunately tonight," Commissioner Gordon continued, more regret weighing in with every word he said, "It seems that the bank robbery is the least of our worries."

"How do you figure that?" Robin inquired.

"We fear that they may have taken hostages during this last heist," he answered.

"Who?" Batman asked.

"Two teenagers, Tammy and Danny Mason," Commissioner Gordon explained as he headed over to his desk, "Here are their pictures."

He handed two photographs to the Dynamic Duo to look over. In the pictures they saw a young boy and a girl, both near the same height and build, both with short blonde hair and blue eyes and both wearing white T-shirts, blue jeans and white sneakers.

"Holy DNA," Robin remarked, "Twins."

"Yes, daughter and son of David Mason and his wife Nora Mason," Gordon explained, "Their mother reported them missing this morning."

"When were they taken hostage?" Batman asked as he put the pictures down, "And why weren't we informed of this earlier?"

"Well at the moment we have no actual proof that the Penguin and Joker _are_ responsible for their disappearances, but speaking in terms of circumstantial evidence, they seem to be the prime suspects.

"Nora Mason explains that they had driven off to school that morning, at approximately the same time that the bank robbery took place. What happened immediately after, we don't know, but the day went by and when it was night, the children hadn't returned home. Mrs. Mason called the high school only to find they had never come in during the day, and their car had not been seen by anybody in the whole morning and afternoon. By legal standards, a 24 hour period wait is required before reporting a missing person, so she estimated the time of disappearance before 8 A.M., 24 hours following, she contacted us."

"And?"

"We covered every piece of ground from their home to the school, but Mrs. Mason informed us her kids took an off-route to get to the school…following that route, we discovered their car, completely smashed up, abandoned and in a thicket, at the same dead end that the getaway car from the bank robbery passed through…not 10 feet away from the gap between the edges."

"Holy hijinks!" Robin exclaimed, "So they must have taken them hostage."

But something to the story troubled Batman, "Robin and I searched every inch of ground surrounded where the getaway car disappeared and found nothing, and we _would_ have seen another car that close to the explosion mark."

"As did we," Commissioner Gordon explained, "Which leads us to believe that it was put there after they were taken hostage, probably by the Joker or the Penguin themselves."

"But why?" Robin asked, "With their car at the scene of the disappearance, after a thorough crime search by both the Gotham police and ourselves, would only draw suspicion to them."

"Maybe," Batman thought, "That's what they want."

"To draw us into a trap?" Robin asked.

"Somebody, not necessarily us, but somebody who would be willing to search the vicinity for them after an official investigation found nothing."

"Kidnapping," the very mention of the word made Robin cringe with disgust, "So they _are_ up to their old games again."

Commissioner Gordon picked up another photograph, "We inspected every inch of the car hoping to find something but came up as empty in that search as we have in all the rest."

Batman and Robin looked over the photograph and the image of the smashed royal blue convertible, and a thought came to them. They tried to imagine the car in full detail, without the smashes and dents, then they tried to visualize it being of different color and slightly different build, more of a Lincoln Futura. Neither one said anything but both knew that with the right work done to it, it from an exterior view, could pass as the Batmobile, and for a minute they wondered if the initial capture had been instead intended for them.

Their thoughts were broken up by the sound of a woman yelling.

"That's Mrs. Mason," Commissioner Gordon explained, "She's been like that all day since we found out. The police are trying to get her to calm down to get some answers from her but with no luck so far."

"I can't figure it out," Robin said, "What would the Joker and the Penguin want with the two of them?"

"Maybe it's not about the two of them," Batman thought, "Maybe somebody else," he turned to the Commissioner, "What did you say their father's name was?"

"David Mason."

"David Mason," a light bulb went on over his head, "Not _the_ David Mason, millionaire entrepreneur."

"The very one," the Commissioner answered.

"Maybe the abduction of his children was just a clever ruse to get to him, simultaneously directly and indirectly," Batman thought.

"I think I get it now," Robin said, "If they just threatened him, he might not give it a thought, but with his kids in their hands, he'd have to listen to their reasoning then."

Batman turned to the room where the screaming was coming from, "I think I'd like to ask Mrs. Mason a few questions."

"Good luck," Commissioner Gordon said, "You'll need it."

That in mind, Batman and Robin cautiously approached the next room, where they found the woman they presumed to be Nora Mason, a tall woman with red hair and a dark red dress covered for the most part by a mink fur coat, screaming at Chief O'Hara, who was at his desk, pounding on it with her fists.

"Now Miss, please calm down," Chief O'Hara said.

"I will _not_ calm down!" she replied as she battered the desk, "My children are gone and maybe in the clutches of that bird and that fool, and you're going to tell me to calm down? Well I won't!" she roared with fury, "I want these two caught and I want my children back!"

During all this, she had paid no attention to anything going on behind her and hadn't noticed that the two men had entered the room. Batman reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, "Mrs. Mason…"

In the blink of an eye she spun around with a scornful face that if looks could kill, he'd be buried right now. "Who are you!?" she demanded to know. A second later reality kicked in and she calmed down a bit, "Oh Batman, I'm sorry, I…" she looked at him first, then turned to look at Robin, and back to Batman, "My children…have they found my children yet?"

"Not yet, but we're going to do all we can to bring them back safely," Batman explained, "But first I think it would help if we could ask you some questions."

"What about?" she asked.

"Well first of all we'd like to say we're terribly sorry about what happened," Batman began.

"That's all fine and well but while you're apologizing, who knows what those two chowderheads are doing with my children?"

"Right now we're trying to determine a possible motive for the Penguin and the Joker wanting to kidnap your children," Batman explained, "Your husband is quite a public figure, isn't he?"

"Well…I wouldn't say public figure, he's pretty popular and he'd pretty wealthy you know…millionaire entrepreneur they call him. Although—" she trailed off.

"Although what?" Robin asked.

"Well, he's not nearly as successful, or as popular, as that man, Bruce Wayne…why they didn't take _him_ instead, I'd like to know."

Fighting the blush he could feel rising in his face, Batman continued, "Mrs. Mason, is it possible your husband might have known the Joker or the Penguin from past acquaintances?"

"Well," she said as she thought about it for a moment, "I don't think so, he certainly never introduced me to anybody who looked like those two. So what're you saying, that they want something from my husband?"

"We can't be sure of anything yet, but we are trying to figure any and all possibilities logical at the moment," Batman explained.

"Logical?" she repeated and laughed, "You have a midget bird and an amazon court jester, and you want to talk logic?"

"You're overestimating the Joker," Robin commented.

She ignored his comment and shook her head, "I just feel terrible about it all…I love my children very much, I never thought they would ever run into somebody like Gotham's criminal masterminds…I'm worried to death about them, but at the same time…I guess I feel relieved that if they were going to kidnap anybody, it was them."

"Why do you say that?" Robin asked.

"Well, suppose instead of my children they kidnapped a five year old? Or a baby? Or somebody who was completely unable to defend themselves? At least with my children, they're 16, that's old enough to resist, they would fight them if they had to."

"Be that as it may," Batman said, "I don't know you have much to worry about in that regard. The Penguin is not a reputably violent criminal, rather an intelligent eccentric."

"He's a kook plain and simple," Nora Mason replied, "Don't act like you haven't noticed. And what about that bumbling boob companion of his, the Joker? He's demented enough he very well might hurt my children."

"That is a possibility but at the moment not a large one, the Joker's more recent offenses haven't included much violence towards victims," Batman informed her.

"Really?" she asked, "He's slipping…clearly though, for being a criminal mastermind I don't think he's too bright."

"Why do you say that?" Batman asked.

"Well it's simply that I've never known anybody to kidnap somebody who would fight them, and I think my children would…Tammy especially."

"Why's that?" Robin asked.

"She has a real temper," Nora explained, "It's hereditary you know. Anybody gets her mad, watch out…are you familiar with that boy, Jason Givens?"

"I recall hearing of him, vaguely," Batman said.

"Well, he attends the same school as my kids, last month he asked Tammy out on a date and she threw a brick at him and broke his arm."

"That's a little severe for declining the proposal," Batman remarked.

"Yes," Nora replied proudly, "But that's the mold she and her brother come from so it's to be expected. Now," her tone turned to a more serious one, "Let me make something clear right now. As far as the police know, those two quacks have my children, I don't know what they plan to do with them but I don't care, all I want is for you two to find my children, and bring them back to me."

"Will do, Mrs. Mason, we're out to investigate where their car was found right now," Batman said, "We'll keep in contact with the Gotham police through the phone in the Batmobile. What you should do right now is go home and try to relax."

"Relax? You clearly have never met my husband, he can be a bigger wreck than I," she said, "But I suppose I ought to go and give the policemen's nerves a break."

After a minute she calmly walked out the door and left the police station.

"We better get going and see what we can find," Batman said.

"Agreed, but I still can't help but wonder just _what_ the Penguin and the Joker would want with those two kids."

"Neither can I, but if what Mrs. Mason said is true, I think they're in for an unexpected surprise," Batman replied.

"Maybe."

As they themselves turned to leave, they were met again by Commissioner Gordon, "Is there anything further we can do to assist you?"

"You said the car was found in a thicket 10 feet away from where the two stretches of land separate, correct?" Batman asked.

"Yes."

"We'll go out and inspect the area ourselves, we'll contact you if we find anything, all we ask is that you let us know if you find out anything from this end," he said.

"Will do."

"Come, Robin," Batman said, "To the Batmobile."

* * *

They rushed out and left and headed back out towards the dirt road where this mess had started.

"I've got to say, Batman, I have a horrible feeling about this one," Robin said, "So many possibilities as to just _why_ the Mason kids were taken." Another horrible thought occurred to him, "What do you think the Joker and the Penguin will do to them?"

"I don't know," he replied, "I only pray we're not too late. I didn't want to upset Nora Mason anymore than she had been, but with two of Gotham's most notorious criminals behind this, there is valid reason to worry."

"Then you think they might actually hurt them?" Robin asked.

"With those two running this scheme, anything unfortunately, is possible," Batman replied.

Robin nodded dreadfully in agreement. They approached the cutoff point between the land and they stopped and got out to investigate. They found the thickets where the car was found and shone a light on it to see if they could find anything. The police had had the car taken away after finding nothing, but if the Joker and Penguin were willing to put the car into plain view to be seen after the fact, they might try again with something else. After a half hour search, they came to the dreaded conclusion that there was nothing there to be found.

"We better check the whole area incase they left something somewhere else," Robin said.

"Good thinking, Robin."

Batman searched the ground several feet back from where the road ended; searching for footprints, tire tracks, anything that might give an indication somebody had been here recently. At night this was no easy task, though to be honest he didn't think doing it in daylight would be that much better.

"It just doesn't make any sense, Batman, how could they just disappear without a trace?" Robin asked as they continued to search the grounds.

"It's something I've wondered myself…I still haven't ruled out the possibility that they've got the Riddler assisting a hand in this. For to pull of such a disappearing act would indeed be a riddle of the greatest sort."

"Yes but the Riddler's tricks always come with a clue disguised as a worded riddle, and here we've been without anything to go on," Robin reminded him.

"This is true but it doesn't rule out the idea that he may have learned a few new tricks in the Gotham City Prison," Batman replied.

"This is true."

As Batman continued to search for a clue, any clue that might explain what happened; he couldn't help but think how terrified the Mason children must have been when they were kidnapped. He could almost hear them scream in terror and try to resist, but the Joker and the Penguin got the last laugh when they made a getaway with them as their captives.

Meanwhile, curiosity got the better of Robin and he wandered over to where the land ended, trying to figure out if something might be over on the other piece of land directly ahead that hadn't been there earlier. But as he was wondering, he heard the ground beneath him start to crack, he tried to back up but it was too late, he fell over the edge screaming.

"Robin!" Batman yelled in terror as he rushed to the edge to try and save his partner and friend before it was too late.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note: A special thanks to Eridani23 who has been the only proof thus far that anybody enjoys this story, hope you all enjoy this next chapter.

Chapter Two

Batman looked down in awe; Robin appeared to be sitting in midair, shaken up from the fall but allright nonetheless.

"Robin, are you okay?" he asked.

"I—think so," Robin got his bearing straight and looked down, "Holy bafflement, Batman, look at this."

Batman shone the light in the direction he was talking about and saw what he saw. Instead of a 1000 foot drop, there was a path that seemed to be cut in between the two edges of land, leading downhill, covered with tire tracks heading both downhill and back up.

"So this is how they made their getaway," Batman realized.

"But why didn't anybody notice this earlier?" Robin asked as he walked back up to the edge and got back on flat ground.

"Indeed," Batman climbed down onto the path to check it out for himself.

The road appeared to be made of stone, not dirt, though what it was actually made out of could still be speculated.

"I'm beginning to wonder just how long the Joker and Penguin have been planning this crime wave, it seems some heavy work has gone into this plan of theirs. There must be something that makes this road disappear into the cliffs when people come to investigate, and come back out when the coast is clear."

"Then what does it mean being out now?" Robin asked.

"I don't know but I think we know where we're heading now, and hopefully it will lead us to the Joker, the Penguin and the two Mason children."

They returned to the Batmobile and drove it over the edge and down the rocky path to find out where it would lead them, though they weren't sure of much at the moment, one thing they could be certain of was that the estimation had been correct in it being 1000 feet down to the ground.

"Shouldn't we contact the Gotham City police and let them know what we've found?" Robin asked.

"I want to find out first if we're just walking into a trap or if we might actually have found them, before we inform the police about anything. I don't want any innocent bystanders walking into any traps if it can be helped," Batman replied.

They reached the end of the hill and came onto unsteady but solid ground and moved onward.

"I've got a bad feeling, Batman," Robin said and he pointed skyward, "Look."

The night had already been a dark one but now it threatened to turn even darker with a storm approaching.

"Maybe it's a good thing there wasn't anything left back in the thickets to find, the storm might prove strong enough to wash away any evidence that might have remained," Batman thought aloud.

"Only now we have to find out what lies ahead of us," Robin said.

"And it looks like we have a long way to find out," Batman said, "There doesn't look to be anything ahead of us for miles."

Thunder rumbled and crashed from the storm clouds above, followed by lightning bright enough to light up as far as the eye could see and make it as bright as daylight. It looked like a downpour could be expected to come out of the clouds at any time. As they pressed on, the straight and wide road soon turned into a multitude of paths to take, one lay directly ahead of them, one wavered off to the southeast, and the other to the northwest.

"How do we pick where to go first?" Robin asked.

"I guess we have no choice but to check them out as we go," Batman replied.

First they headed down the southeast path, hoping it would lead them to something to reveal what was going on and what had happened to the Mason children. It was a narrow path that showed no way to get off the path and take an alternative route, and it ran long before reaching an ultimate dead end, Batman and Robin estimated that this path had taken them out ten straight miles. So they headed back to where the three roads parted and headed down the middle road this time, hoping to have better luck in finding something.

They passed by one mile and saw nothing, another mile and nothing yet, then another and another with no sign of anything behind up ahead worth finding.

"I hate to think about it, Batman, but what happens if we _don't_ find them?" Robin asked.

"It's too early to determine anything but I too worry this may be just the case," Batman replied, "So far the Penguin and the Joker have been able to elude us and the police at every turn, we haven't been able to find out where they are, what their plan is, or even how they've caused all those explosions…now we have to determine what they want with these two children, the possibilities are endless and it seems there are no answers, at least none within our grasp."

"Batman! Up ahead!"

Batman looked but he couldn't see what Robin saw, but another flash of lightning made it clear to see, the road came to a sudden stop ahead, and the only way to go from there was down. He stopped the Batmobile and they got out to see just what they would have faced if he hadn't been able to stop it in time. What it was, was an immediate drop, by about another 500 feet, directly down into the rocky tide of the ocean.

"Holy washout, Batman," Robin gasped, "This was a close call."

"It is, and it leaves us with one option left, to go back and take the third road," Batman said.

Robin looked up towards the sky, the clouds were moving away at a remarkable speed, bringing out the clear sky once again, which was turning brighter.

"Holy time zones, Batman, it's almost morning!"

"Yes, I only hope we're not too late."

They went back and found the third path and took it, for a few miles it looked like it too would be another dead end, but after a while they came upon a clearing and far up ahead rested a large house.

"This place looks vaguely familiar," Robin said, "But something seems to be missing."

Batman thought about it for a minute and came to a conclusion, "Of course! It all makes sense."

"What does, Batman?"

"If a clown wants to hide, what's the best place?"

"In a circus!"

"Correct, but if there isn't one around, the next best place would be a funhouse."

It was then that Robin seemed to catch onto what Batman was saying, "Now I remember, this is where the state carnival used to hold up."

"Yes, but when they left, one thing was left standing, that was the funhouse which was bought and sold for ulterior uses, but the plans were never fully carried out so it was left abandoned," Batman said.

"Holy conundrum, that means that we've been going at this backwards, if we knew they were holding up here, we could've found them hours before now, maybe even days."

"A clever way to throw somebody off," Batman responded, "Now let's find out what's going on around here, and see if we can find out what those fiends have done with the Mason children."

* * *

It was at this exact time that Tammy and Danny Mason were on the third floor of the house, listening in on a conversation between the Joker and the Penguin, from a floor below, through the dumbwaiter, though once it was closed, it like the rest of the house, became virtually soundproof. It seemed that all the Joker and Penguin did was argue and scream and yell at each other over something or other. 

"If they keep that up," Tammy said, "They'll end up killing each other then there won't be anybody to do anything with all that money from the banks."

"True," Danny replied, "All they've done since we got here was argue their heads off at each other about one thing or another."

"I'm beginning to wonder how they've been able to stand each other long enough to pull all the bank heists," Tammy added.

"Me too."

Danny closed the dumbwaiter and walked over to a table where a cigar box rested; he opened the lid and took out one, "Want a cigar?"

"Smoking is a filthy habit and you know it," Tammy replied.

Danny looked at the cigar and twirled it in his fingers, "That's why the Penguin uses a holder."

"But they don't make holders for cigars," she told him.

"True."

Then Tammy seemed to have an idea, she turned back to her brother and said, "But give me one anyway."

"What do you want it for?" he asked as he put it in her hand and went over to the window.

"You'll find out when the time is right, _if_ the time is right," she replied as she put it into her pocket.

Danny pulled up the blind to the window and looked down, "Holy hallucinations!"

"Now you're starting to sound like that bird, the Boy Wonder," Tammy said.

"Exactly," Danny replied, "Come over here and take a look, they're down there!"

"Who is?" she asked.

"Batman and Robin, look!" Danny pointed down to the ground.

Tammy went over to the window and looked down to where her brother was pointing. "I don't see anybody out there."

"No, but that _is_ the Batmobile down there," Danny said, "Meaning that they've come here."

"Far out," Tammy said, "Oh boy if the Penguin and Joker weren't steaming before, they sure will be now…hey!"

"What is it?" Danny asked.

"I just thought of something."

"What's that?"

"I hope Batman and Robin don't try coming in through the front door, or else they're going to be in for a rude surprise," she said.

"Agreed," Danny said in return, "But you know something? I don't think Joker and the Penguin know they're here yet."

"Well then we better go welcome them, hadn't we?" Tammy asked, a coy look in her eyes.

"We had," Danny agreed, and off they went over to the next wall, pressed along a panel and exited through a secret room.

* * *

Down on the ground, Robin had come up to a large window and was trying to see if he could catch sight of the Penguin or the Joker, or anybody for that matter. 

"It looks so dark in there, I can hardly see a thing," he concluded. He ran his gloved hand over the window pane and saw nothing change, "It's not the window, at least not from out here..." He tried for a closer look and could make out some furniture in the immediate room and the one across from it, but saw nobody.

"Looks like now would be a good time to crash the party," Batman said.

"Through the window?" Robin asked.

"No, let's drop in from the top."

"Right."

They took out their batarangs and swung them and sent them up and wrapped them around a peak and they went up and dropped in on the heavy tiled roof.

"No skylight," Robin acknowledged.

"And the roof is sturdy."

Robin turned around to get a look at things from above and he came to a horrifying conclusion, "Holy kleptomaniacs, Batman, the Batmobile is gone!"

Batman went over to where Robin stood and looked down and sure enough where they had parked the Batmobile there was nothing left except a couple of tire tracks in the dirt, which only went in the direction they had come.

"Those criminal tricksters have learned a few new tricks it would seem," Batman said,

"But how could they possibly steal the Batmobile and get away this quickly without our noticing?"

"What do we do now, Batman?"

"The first thing we have to do is find those two kids, come on."

An open window was found on the floor right below the roof so they swung in and found themselves in what they guessed to be a storage attic; it was dark and very dirty and full of crates and boxes.

"What is this?" Robin wondered.

"I'm not sure but this may be where they've been putting all the money stolen from the banks," Batman said.

Without any further words, Robin went to one large box and opened the flaps on top and up popped a large hideous clown doll with an evil laugh.

"Holy coronary," Robin said as he pressed the doll back into the box and closed it, "That's a bad joke."

"We've got to find the door and get out of here," Batman said.

"Right." Robin headed directly for a wall in the room and felt along for a door or panel or something leading out of the room. He searched along one whole wall and found nothing, then crossed over to the next and in the middle of the wall, he found a door.

"This way, Batman."

"Careful, Robin, it may be a trap."

Robin turned the knob and threw the door open and took a step back, waiting for something to happen, but nothing did. Cautiously, he and Batman exited the room and found themselves in the middle of a hallway.

"Where do we go now?" Robin asked.

"There may be no time to waste, if we each take separate floors we stand better chance of finding them sooner," Batman said, "I'll look up here, you check downstairs, and be careful, we don't know what the Penguin and Joker may have in store for us."

"Right."

Robin flung himself over the banister and down onto the next floor and was about to open the door closest him when he heard a noise coming from down the hall, so he went to check it out. He came to the door from where he'd heard the noise, he opened the door, waiting before entering to see if it was a trap, and saw that it was empty, empty of people anyway. The room was filled with giant balls and colored blocks and hoops, and from the ceiling were sustained several trapezes. Robin was starting the think the only thing missing was a toy train, but no sooner had that thought registered in his mind, he heard the chug-chug-chug-chug-chug wheeze of a toy train's engine. Looking on the floor he saw a small train set come around a very small, very thin set of tracks and when it turned a curved to go back around, a small explosion went off in the middle of the tracks and there was confetti and a BOOM sign falling to the floor.

"This place is turning into a regular nuthouse," Robin said to himself as he exited the room and went to check out another.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the floor above, Batman was checking every room left and right to find that there wasn't anybody there. Most rooms were empty save for the furniture and a few boxes. If anything, it seemed the silence was the worst, he knew that there were people nearby in the house but he couldn't hear them. He couldn't hear them and they could be anywhere, that's what he hated, that's what was about to drive him crazy, the fact that this house was obviously soundproofed, and there were at least five other people in this house, and right now he had absolutely no idea where any of them were. 

While he searched the top floor and Robin searched the middle floor, the Joker and Penguin were on the bottom floor going about the rooms in a huff.

"You and your moldy jokes!" the Penguin sneered, "Now if we take a wrong step we're going to be fricasseed, swell, _just_ swell."

"Oh give it a rest," the Joker replied, "If Batman and his bird boy come here, they'll be the ones cooking instead of us."

"Providing nothing happens until then," Penguin replied, "Every single time you touch a wall in this house, it jumps out at you, and if you take a wrong step forward, you go through the floor down to that dungeon you call a basement. Of all the places in the world to pick for a hideout you just _had_ to pick a funhouse, didn't you?"

"Nobody told you to come along," Joker replied, "You could've picked another place if you hated this one so much."

"I swear to you, Joker—"

"That's a dirty habit."

"If one more bomb goes off, one more arrow comes out of the wall or one more floor drops out under _me_, I'm feeding you to the crocodiles."

"Promises, promises," the Joker said in response.

This conversation of theirs continued as they headed off together towards another room, while in the living room, the bookcase in the wall turned around and Danny and Tammy came out.

"Boy, did you hear that?" Danny asked.

"They're sure mad," Tammy said.

"And they don't even know Batman and Robin are in here, just think how mad they're gonna be then," he added.

"Indeed," Tammy replied, "Which is why we had better set up for them, the less they know about Batman and Robin being in this house for the time being, the better."

"That's right, right now it's just the four of us in this and there's enough fighting going on _with_ just the four of us," Danny said, "What do you think we should do now?"

"First thing we need to do is make sure of just _where_ the Dynamic Duo are."

"Right, I'll go check it out," Danny told her, "You go get ready in the kitchen."

"Affirmative," Tammy said.

She crossed over through the living room to the dining room to the kitchen and walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out a glass quart bottle of milk.

* * *

Danny went into the next room over to the dumbwaiter; it was an unusually large one fit for two or maybe three adults depending on how big they were. He closed the door and grabbed hold of the rope and jerked it over the pulley system and pulled himself on the platform up, up, up, up, until he was certain he'd reached the second floor. He put the platform in place and got out and took a look around. Crossing over to the west wing of the house, at first glance he didn't see anything, but upon further investigation down the hall he saw Robin, checking one room, and then moving onto the next. 

Danny went and dove behind a set of curtains so as not to be seen, it worked and Robin was none the wiser. Danny pulled the drapes apart the tiniest bit to see what Robin was doing. When the current room was looked over, Robin came closer to where Danny stood and for a minute he wondered if the Boy Wonder would in fact see him. Then as if one cue, there came a voice from upstairs, "Robin, have you found anything?"

Robin disappeared back to the stairs, and Danny let out a sigh of relief.

"Nothing yet, Batman, I think I better check the downstairs now."

"Good idea, you check down there, and I'll double check the second floor to see if anything's been overlooked."

At those words, Danny hurried back the way he'd come and slipped into the dumbwaiter and took it back downstairs, and he exited it and met with his sister in the kitchen. There he found her wearing a large, turquoise silk robe over her clothes, setting up a wooden chair next to the table, on which rested pieces of rope and a white handkerchief.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"They're coming down," he said.

"Who is coming down?" Tammy asked.

"Robin's coming down here as soon as he finds the way down," Danny explained.

"What about Batman?" she asked.

"He's staying upstairs for the time being," Danny told her.

"Well then we don't have much time, we better get ready for the Boy Wonder's arrival," she said.

"We'd better."

Tammy sat down on the chair while Danny picked up one of the ropes and bound it around her hands and her wrists. Then he picked up another rope and tied it around her and the back of the chair. Then he picked up the handkerchief and she opened her mouth and he stuck it in place and tied it tightly in the back. The ropes were tied to look tight but would come away with little to no problems whatsoever.

They heard Robin coming down the stairs, so Danny got out of there by ducking into another room. Tammy set about wriggling her hands in the ropes and stomping her feet on the floor and trying to scream through the gag. Robin appeared in the doorway and the look on his face could be described as nothing less than appall and shock.

"Holy nightmare," Robin backed to the staircase and called for Batman before rushing forth to untie her. He started on the knots tied around both her and the back of the chair, when she started screaming even louder through the gag. Robin turned around to see what it was that she saw at the doorway, and then he got hit in the back of the head, and then everything went black as he fell to the floor.

Tammy unwound the ropes, removed the gag from her mouth and stood up; removing the robe where she had concealed the milk bottle she had just beamed him with. She threw the robe on the floor in a manner it would look like she had been jerked away in a hurry, and she threw the ropes on the floor in a similar fashion, and she too headed out the door that her brother had passed through only a moment ago.

"The games have begun," she said as she closed the door behind her.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Batman heard Robin call him and had already been on his way down the stairs when he heard a crash, followed by a loud THUD like something, or somebody, hitting the floor. He rushed down and entered the kitchen to see Robin's body sprawled out face down, with glass shards from a milk bottle laying all over around his body and some pieces on the top and back of his head. By some miracle though, he seemed to be okay.

"Robin!" Batman smoothed the glass off of his friend's head and pulled him up out of the mess as he slowly came around.

"Wha—what happened?"

"That's what I'd like to know," Batman said, "Robin, who did this to you?"

He tried to think, "I don't know," he said finally, "All I remember was finding that girl here…she was," he looked to the chair where she had been, "Tied up…I went to untie her and somebody hit me over the head with something."

"A milk bottle," Batman said, "Irony of it all, are you allright?"

"I—think so, but I wonder what happened to the Mason girl," Robin said.

They looked and saw where everything had been thrown, leading up to the wall directly ahead of them.

"You don't think," Robin said.

"Well, this was a funhouse, and all funhouses are only complete if they have hidden rooms and trap doors and secret panels, and if I know the Joker, he'd keep it that way," Batman said.

"It's worth a try."

They went over to the wall and felt along it for something that might make it give way if it was in fact a faulty wall, or a moving wall for a hidden room. Batman found a small lever set somewhere in the wall and pressed it and they stood back when a piece of the wall big enough to cover two doors, started moving and spun around halfway.

"Aha!" Batman said, "Now we're onto something, let's find out where this leads, Robin."

"Right."

They went in and the wall spun back around and closed behind them. After they had done that, Tammy and Danny came back into the kitchen.

"So far so good," she said.

"How long do you think they'll stay in there?" Danny asked.

"I don't know but hopefully it'll be long enough for us to get the next part of the plan ready," Tammy said, "Forward march!"

"Tally ho," Danny added as they left the kitchen, went back to the dining room, and disappeared into the closet which took them back to the second floor.

* * *

Meanwhile, Batman and Robin had found themselves in a solid stone, dark, damp and eerie room; it almost seemed like a dungeon. A few feet in from the entrance, Batman found an old kerosene lantern and turned it on. They took it with them though they wished to keep as great a distance from it as possible, for it sounded like it could explode at any minute.

"Holy Dark Ages," Robin said, "What is this place?"

"I'm not sure, but my guess would be the path leading to the basement," Batman said.

Robin cringed, "If this is what it looks like still upstairs, I don't think I _want_ to know what's in the basement."

The room they were in was long and narrow and seemed they had no choice but to go straight forward and down, as the room seemed to tilt downward like a ramp.

"I have to wonder, Batman," Robin said, "When that girl was tied up in the kitchen, where was her brother being held?"

"A good question, Robin, one that hopefully we'll soon have an answer to."

They reached the end of the room and found that it led to a small corridor and to a long staircase leading down to the basement.

"Watch your step," Batman said, "There's absolutely no telling what sort of condition these stairs are in."

As they moved down the stairs, they came to realize that the basement was not as dark as they had imagined, and they found out why when they looked down and saw lit and burning torches hanging on the walls.

"Looks like somebody was expecting us," Robin said.

"Could be."

"You know, Batman, for being a house of the Joker's sort, we haven't come across any traps set for us yet."

"Indeed, I don't want to jinx our luck but it seems almost as if there was severely poor planning on the Joker and Penguin's parts in anticipating our arrival."

Batman turned off the kerosene lamp since its light wasn't needed at the moment, and should something happen, he didn't want the whole room to go up in flames. Robin counted how many stairs they walked down, and how many remained, altogether he estimated there were near fifty steps. When they reached the bottom one, that was the step that chose to give out and they quickly found themselves on their backs instead of their feet. Batman was now very grateful for his intuition to turn off the lantern before reaching the bottom.

"What was that?" Robin asked.

Batman turned his head back to look, "My guess would be rotted wood…oh well, we're here now."

"Yes, but where _is_ here?" Robin asked.

"It looks like the basement," Batman said, "We better look around and see if we can find anything."

Robin nodded and went off in the western direction of the basement and found what looked like a separate part of the basement separated by wrought iron bars, as if it were in fact a dungeon. All that seemed to be missing were some manacles and bones laying about the room. He pressed against a door made of the same wrought iron and entered that section of the basement and saw a sight that made him stop in his tracks. "Batman!"

Batman rushed to where he heard Robin and saw what he saw; in the middle of the room directly ahead of them were two large, new, shiny black coffins.

"Think that's supposed to be an invitation?" Robin asked.

"Let's take a look at what's inside," Batman said, "But don't let your guard down, it could be a trap."

They took a step forward and pushed on the lids to open them, and inside of the coffins lay a sickening sight. In one was a skeleton dressed up as Batman, with breaks in the arms' bones nearly severing them from the rest of the skeleton. Breaks of the same sort were also found in the skeleton's ribs and legs, yet the whole thing managed to stay intact. In the other coffin was as equally disgusting skeleton dressed up to look like Robin.

"Not a trap, but a very sick joke," Robin said.

"Maybe not a joke but a warning," Batman replied.

"What kind of warning?" Robin asked, "After all, if we're meant to find these, we're meant to be down here by now, don't you think?"

"It's hard to determine anything anticipated on the parts of Penguin and Joker."

"Meanwhile, what do we do about the Mason kids?" Robin asked, "It seems obvious they're not down here."

"Nor are the Penguin and the Joker," Batman said.

"Nor the banks' money," Robin added.

"We better get back upstairs and see what we can do," Batman told him.

They turned around to head back to the staircase when Robin stopped and turned back around. "Wait, Batman," he whispered, "I think I heard something."

"What?"

Robin heard it again, "Follow me."

He crept back to the coffins with Batman following behind him; they had overlooked a second bunch of iron bars where a wall should probably have been, beyond the coffins. The door to the bars was ajar so they slipped through without making the hinges creak, and they saw at the far right corner of the room two shadows on the wall, one tall and skinny in a long jacket, one shorter and plumper wearing a top hat and carrying a cigarette in a holder in its mouth. Both cackled among themselves as they entered another room of the basement.

"The Joker and the Penguin," Robin said.

"Let's find out where they're going," Batman told him.

They went to the corner of the room and found just another empty room, no doors, no stairs, nothing that could indicate where the foul fiends had gone.

"Holy brain rattler," Robin said, "This is getting ridiculous."

"Start feeling along the walls but watch your step, I'd hate to think there's a floor below this but there's no telling what's been done to this house," Batman said.

Each took a wall opposite the other and felt along trying to find something that would open a wall, or the floor, or something. Batman's glove caught on something and when he jerked it, he heard something move, and the wall directly ahead of them lifted up into the ceiling, unveiling a staircase leading back upstairs.

"So this is how they made their getaway," Batman said, "Let's go."

They cautiously made their way up some thirty stairs and came to a door; they pushed on the door and found themselves coming out of a giant grandfather clock in what looked to be the hallway in the front of the house.

"Where could they have gone?" Robin asked.

"They could be anywhere by now," Batman said, "On this floor, the next floor, or outside."

Robin went to the front door and grabbed the door handle and found himself in for a very nasty shock. A shock to the tune of about 200 volts of electricity, he screamed and let go and fell to the floor. Batman pulled him back to his feet and asked him if he was allright, Robin, still shaken up from the shock, just nodded.

"I don't think they exited through that door," Batman said.

"No," Robin shook his head, "So they have to still be somewhere in the house."

They heard a noise come from the back of the house on the first floor and headed in that direction. It sounded like somebody was making their way up the back stairs, so they followed the sound.

* * *

Meanwhile on the second floor, Tammy and Danny had made their way into a hidden room full of costumes and makeup, and Danny was putting it to good use. Instead of his white T-shirt and sneakers, and blue jeans he now wore a long white short sleeve dress with a wide skirt, white flats, red lipstick and a short golden blonde wig with the ends curled. He looked more like Tammy's sister now than her brother, and he was working on sounding the part as well.

"We've really got them going now," Tammy said.

"We sure do," he replied in a more feminine voice as he looked himself over in a mirror, "But what do we do now?"

Tammy put back a monocle and top hat where they belonged, "I do believe now it's time for our daily calisthenics."

Danny turned away from the mirror to face his sister, "I do believe you're right."

The two faced each other and for a moment engaged in a game of patty cake, when their four hands met each other, Danny hunched over and Tammy leapfrogged over his back and to the door. They ran hand in hand out of the room giggling and over to another room at the far end of the hall.

Tammy turned on a light and went into the room and moved some boxes that were at the far end of the room over to the middle, while Danny made his way over to the fuse box.

"Ready?" Danny asked.

"Ready," she replied.

"Time for my daily calisthenics," Danny said, he grasped his hands together and held them in front of his body, "One," he leaned against the wall and pushed off of it, "Two," he slid off to the side, "Three," and he flipped the breakers in the fuse box, putting them in the dark, "Four."

Batman and Robin had come to the second floor and heard what sounded like a woman screaming in a room nearby where the door was slightly ajar, so they rushed head on. While they did that, Danny stayed backed by the fuse box and Tammy had gotten down on her hands and knees near the door so it wouldn't hit her when it opened, but Batman and Robin wouldn't see her either.

The door was pushed open and they ran in, in a heartbeat, Tammy rubbed up against Batman like a cat, throwing him over her and knocking him into the boxes. Robin immediately following Batman, tripped over her and also went flying through the air and crash landing beside his partner, while the kids made their getaway before they could be seen.

"What was that, Batman?" Robin asked.

"I don't know, but we had better find out before they get away."

They got themselves up and chased after the two figures that had run out of the room, but it was already too late because they were nowhere to be found.

"Holy Houdini, Batman, what do we do now?" Robin asked.

"First thing we'd better do is get some light in here so we can see what we're doing."

"Right, the whole house went dark when we came up the back way," Robin said.

Robin pulled out a bat light and turned it on; it lit up the room and the whole corridor and found that the breakers were thrown on the fuse box. He set them back to bring the power back on and the sudden bombardment of light proved to be near blinding.

"Well that problem's solved," Robin said, "Now where do we go from here?"

They heard something from the floor below, they ran out to the hall and looked over the banister and saw a girl in a white dress run one way, and the other girl in the T-shirt and jeans ran the other way.

"I don't know what's going on but I think we better get in on it," Batman said.

"Right."

They slipped over the banister and stood on the edge of it outside of the bars and dropped down to the first floor. Batman chased after one girl and Robin went after the other, trying to figure out what was going on.

The girl they could identify as Tammy, dove into the dumbwaiter and pulled it up back to the second floor, and the other girl reached the stairwell with Batman after her, she picked up a vase from the hall table and threw it at him and climbed up the banister and slipped over the side and ran up the stairs.

"What's going on, Batman?" Robin asked.

"I'm not sure, Robin, but we better find out where they're going."

They took the stairs two at a time and heard a noise coming from a room Robin already had an idea of what to expect. They kicked the door in and saw Tammy swinging carelessly by one hand and one leg on a trapeze.

"Batman…"

"I can't figure it out either, Robin," he said.

Tammy swung back and forth, alternating between one hand and a foot on the trapeze, to two hands, to switching to her other foot and hand; she looked down and said, "An audience! Catch me, catch me, catch me!" she cried out playfully.

Before they knew what was happening, she threw herself completely over the trapeze and was falling, by sheer luck she was caught by Robin, right before her weight and the suddenness of what happened knocked him to the ground, in turn taking Batman down with him. Tammy pushed herself up and said, "Thanks for breaking my fall, guys, but I must be off now."

She got up and ran out the door with them following behind. Only now instead of Tammy, they saw the other girl in the white dress standing at the end of the hall, she went down the stairs and they followed. As soon as they got off the second floor, the stairs turned into a giant slide which they slid down, clear across the front room, bashing into a bookcase which turned around and put them into another hidden room.

"Here we go again," Batman sighed.

They stood up and tried to figure out where they were, this room was a much smaller one and it seemed they couldn't take more than three steps forward before coming upon a wall.

"What now, Batman?" Robin asked.

"This can't be a dead end, there has to be something along the wall that…"

As Batman groped along the large blocks of stone, he felt another lever give way, and suddenly, the floor they stood on went out from underneath them, and they went down another long slide and came out an unexpected exit and wound up outside of the house.

"This is getting more confusing all the time," Robin said, "Batman, those girls have set us up. And where did that second one come from? We're supposed to find one girl and a boy. Instead we've found two girls who are trying to get us out of the way."

"It would seem so, Robin, but we mustn't jump to conclusions," Batman replied.

"Jump to conclusions? They're trying to kill us, they're clearly sided up with the Joker and Penguin, there could be no other alternative."

"This is true but that's not to say that they weren't coerced into this," Batman said, "Remember, we still don't know their motive for taking these kids hostage, what they're doing they could be doing so against their will to protect somebody."

"Well what do we do now?" Robin asked.

"We find our way back into the house," Batman said.

* * *

What Batman and Robin weren't aware of at the time was that they were being watched by two people looking out the window. The Penguin took his cigarette holder out of his mouth and shook off the ashes on the end, "So Batman and Robin have found us, now what do we do?"

"There's been some very strange things going on in this house, Pengy," the Joker remarked, "Several of our traps have already been set off I've noticed."

"But if those two just got here, who else could've set them off?" he asked.

"That's what I'm wondering," Joker said, "I'm beginning to think there's somebody else in the house right now."

"But who?"

The Joker turned to face the Penguin with a knowing smirk, "Remember that story that was on the radio this morning? Them accusing us of kidnapping a couple of brats from a rich family? Maybe there's something to that."

"You think those teenagers are in this house?" the Penguin asked.

The Joker heard a footstep from the floor above and he said, "I don't think, I know."

"I know you don't know," the Penguin replied.

The Joker gave him a cross look, then he picked up the Penguin's top hat and rammed it back down on his head, breaking the top.

Though they couldn't see it, Tammy and Danny, who now was back in his regular clothes and rid of the wig and makeup, listened to their discussion from the foot of the stairs on the second floor.

"They know," Danny whispered to Tammy, "They know."

"So they do, well they had to find out sooner or later, hadn't they?" Tammy asked.

"They had, but what do we do now? Now they know that we're here _and_ they know that Batman and Robin are here."

"Now?" Tammy asked, "Now…now I suppose we stall them as long as we can."

"Should be easy given our surroundings," Danny said.

"Indeed, well," Tammy cut off as they saw the Penguin and Joker come to the foot of the stairs and start up, "Let's go."

They ran across the hall with the two villains on their tails, Tammy ran into one room and Danny took another, the Joker followed her and the Penguin ensued a chase after him. Danny wound up in a room full of large toys; he picked up a big ball and threw it at the Penguin, who just managed to jump over it. Then Danny sent a large toy car speeding towards him, he fell on top of it and went speeding out into the hall and banged against a door on the other side of the corridor.

"Of course," the Penguin said, "This means war."

The Joker meanwhile was busy having framed paintings, brass candlesticks, and a stopped clock thrown at him from Tammy, who had jumped on top of a fireplace mantel. After throwing everything at him from the mantel and above it, she jumped down, picked up a thin wooden box with two golden clasps and hit the Joker in the face with it. He went down for a few seconds and she tossed it out the room, down the hall, and it slipped into another room. Then she picked up a fireplace poker and swung at him like a dueling fencer. He backed up and she followed until they were out of the room, and they collided with the Penguin and Danny, who likewise were swinging at each other, the Penguin with his umbrella, and Danny with a cane he'd picked up from the costume room. 

The four ran into each other and knocked one another down on the floor, when they got back to their feet, the fight quickly ended when the Joker knocked Tammy in the face and knocked her out.

"You can't do that to her!" Danny shrieked.

The Joker extracted a large black and gray pistol, almost looking like something out of the Wild West era, and pointed it at Danny. "You want to say that again, kid? I didn't think so, now come along."

* * *

The Joker led the way carrying an unconscious Tammy while behind him, the Penguin kept Danny in line by keeping the point of his umbrella poking the center of his back. They were led to a room which they hadn't been in before, but already it looked pretty homely, not much furniture in the whole room except for a bed and a table and a chest of drawers.

"What is this?" Danny asked.

"This?" the Joker repeated, "This is where you two brats are going to be staying for the time being." That said, he dropped Tammy on the bed and she awoke with a bounce.

"Hmmm," Tammy said as she looked around, "I'm guessing we forwent the southern exposure."

She got off the bed and picked up the same wooden box she'd hit the Joker with, that somehow had slipped into this particular room.

"What's that?" the Penguin asked.

"My baseball card collection," she answered with a smug tone.

"We'll see about that," Joker ripped the box away from her grasp and opened it and spilled hundreds of cards out onto the floor, and saw nothing else in the box.

"So what happens now?" Danny asked.

"Now? Now," the Penguin remarked, "You two are going to stay in this room and shut up and be good little hostages until the bat brains and boy blunder come around. Then we'll decide what to do with you after we take care of them."

"And," the Joker took out the pistol again, "I wouldn't advise you two to try screaming for help from that disgusting, do-gooding duo, understand?"

"Yes," they answered.

"Good," The Penguin took out his cigarette holder and put a new cigarette in and was about to light it when he noticed Tammy looking at him. "Why are you staring at me?"

"Oh, no reason," she innocently replied, "I was just having a thought."

"If you could think that would be a good trick," he said, as he tried to ignite a spark on a silver cigarette lighter.

"An idea just occurred to me," Tammy said as she continued to stare at him, "For many years there have been the novelty gag items known as exploding cigars, a very popular idea, but…why has there never been any exploding cigarettes? Or are there?" She turned to look at the clown prince of crime, "Joker?"

The Penguin looked like he was choking and made a sound of similar reasoning. He put down the lighter before it could light his cigarette, and he turned to the Joker and with an angry sneer he said, "You _would!"_

"Don't get your feathers ruffled, Pengy," Joker said, "They're just trying to take our focus off of them."

"Well it's working you stupid clown, of all the stupid jokes and tricks I've had to endure at the cost of your miserable excuse for a sense of humor…200 volt joy buzzers, machine gun cuckoo clocks, revolving furniture, chattering teeth arrows, walls that jump at you, piranhas in the bathtub, that earthquake living room…" he held up his cigarette and stuck it in front of the Joker's face, "_This_ would not be below you."

"And you really think you're so much better you hoiti toiti bird?" The Joker responded as they walked out of the room, "Well let me tell you…"

They left and locked the door behind them.

"They're going to kill each other if they keep that up," Danny said.

"That's the idea," Tammy told him.

"What is the idea?" he asked.

"If we can keep those two arguing with each other long enough, they won't be able to pay much attention to us or to Batman and Robin."

"Speaking of which, where do you think they are?" he asked.

"I don't know, away from those two fools I hope," she responded.

"What do we do now?" Danny asked.

"Until somebody comes along, I guess we sleep," Tammy said, "We've been up for 28 hours."

"I guess you're right, nothing we can do until somebody comes along to get us out," Danny said.

Tammy recollected all her cards and put them back in the box and set the box on the table, then joined her brother in spreading out on the bed to try and rest for the time being. Neither would admit it, but both were afraid by the sudden turn in the situation.

* * *

Meanwhile, Batman and Robin had gotten back into the house by starting again in the attic.

"Now what do we do?" Robin asked.

"Now begins round two," Batman answered.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

They made their way to the end of the room and opened the door and headed out, this time however something new had been set for them because when they left the attic and crossed through into the hallway, they just narrowly escaped a giant guillotine blade coming down in the doorway.

"Holy execution, what's going on here?" Robin asked.

"I don't know, but it probably stands to good reason that where the Joker and Penguin are concerned, we're the mice, and they're the cats."

"And they've got their traps set out for us," Robin concluded.

"We'll have to be more careful going through the house this time," Batman said, "Last time nothing happened but there's no telling what they might do this time."

"Right, but the question is, where do we look for those kids now?"

"I think it's safe to assume they're not up here or we would've heard them," Batman explained, "So I think our best approach would be to start on the second floor and work our way down."

"Then let's go."

* * *

Danny opened one eye, then the other, he lifted his head and looked around and saw nothing, but he'd heard something. He turned to his sister who was sprawled out on the bed like a murder victim and he tapped her on the back, "Tammy." 

"What is it?" she asked.

"Do you hear that noise?"

She shot up in bed and looked around, "What noise?"

"I think somebody's coming," Danny said as he got up off the bed.

"If it's that bird and that clown, I'll have a little surprise waiting for them," she said as she too got up.

"What are you talking about?" Danny asked.

Tammy reached down the waistband of her jeans and pulled out a snub nose revolver. Danny's jaw dropped, "Where did you get that?"

"After the Joker knocked me out, I regained consciousness on the way in here but acted like I was still out, and I picked this from his pocket," she said.

"Is it loaded?" he asked.

Tammy opened the chamber and revealed it filled to maximum capacity, five bullets ready to go. As the voices outside came closer, Tammy closed the chamber and cocked back the hammer, and she and Danny went over to the door and put their ears to it. They still couldn't figure out who was outside but they knew it wasn't the Joker or the Penguin.

"Who's out there?" Danny asked.

The voices stopped and they heard footsteps come closer to the door, "Who's in there?"

"We asked you first, who are you?" Tammy asked.

"Batman and Robin, who're you?"

"Tammy and Danny Mason, what do you want?" Tammy asked.

"What are you doing in there?" Batman asked.

"We're locked in, Joker and the Penguin put us in here for the time being while they went to take care of you."

"They haven't found us yet," Batman explained, "Hold on, we'll get you out of there."

They backed away from the door and Tammy put the gun back down the waistband of her jeans.

"How're they going to do that?" Danny asked, "The only way they could do that would be to pick the lock, or shoot the bolt out of the door, or…"

A light bulb seemed to go on over Tammy's head, she walked over to the table and opened her baseball card box, and Danny, vexed by her lack of interest, followed.

"What're you doing, Sis?" he inquired.

"One last surprise," Tammy answered, "Courtesy of the clown prince of crime."

She dumped the cards out of the box, and worked on the bottom part of the box, revealing a hidden panel which was made to look thinner than it was, giving the impression that nothing more _than_ the cards could possibly fit in the box. A false bottom piece came out, and she picked up the cigar that Danny had given to her earlier.

"What're you going to do?" he asked.

"Give me your lighter," she said.

He did and as she flicked the lighter to ignite a flame, he suddenly made the connection with what she was trying to do. Danny made a mad dash to the door and called out,

"Batman, Robin, danger! Get away from the door, fast!"

Batman and Robin heeded the warning and backed away to the wall on the opposite side of the room, wondering what was going to happen. Tammy lighted the cigar and as the first bit of the end turned to ash, she threw it at the door and she and Danny ran over behind the bed to take shelter.

A few seconds later there was a loud BOOM and a wall of gray smoke following the explosion. Once the smoke died down, it revealed that the entire door and part of the wall had been blown away.

"Now that's what I call making an entrance," Tammy said as they came out from cover and ran to get out.

"And exit, stage right," Danny added as he ran after her.

"Holy TNT," Robin said, "What was that?"

"Not now," Tammy said, "We've got to get out of here before they come back."

"Follow me," Danny led the way as he took off for another room across the hall.

They did follow, and he led them into a room that looked almost completely bare except for a few trunks, and one very poorly architected fireplace. Danny pressed on the mantel and it opened up, revealing a hidden room, "This way, they won't think to look for us here right away, quickly."

The four of them dove into the room and shut the fireplace back to the way it was.

"Allright," Batman said, "I think you two have a lot of explaining to do. Now what is going on around here?"

"It's a long story," Danny said.

"But we don't mind telling it," Tammy added.

"But what're you doing here?" Danny asked.

"Robin and I have been trying to catch the Joker and Penguin and send them back to prison," Batman said, "But after every bank heist they pulled they seemed to disappear without a trace after an explosion. After the last bank robbery, your mother reported you two missing and your car was found near where their last getaway had come to an end for the police searching. We found the path in between the lands coming down to the clearing and found the house."

"And since then we've been trying to find the two of you to take you back to your mother, and catch those two to turn them over to the police," Robin explained.

"Then it's true?" Danny asked, "People think we were kidnapped?"

"Well weren't you?" Batman asked.

"Oh no," Tammy said, "That's why it's a long story. You see, the day of that last bank robbery, Danny and I were in our car heading to school, and we take a path that's out of the way…"

"We know that already," Robin said.

"Well, we were passing through that route when we saw their getaway car speed through. And we've been following the reports on these two from the papers and the radio, so we knew it wasn't the first job they pulled since breaking out and probably wouldn't be the last," Danny explained.

"So we decided to follow them and catch them ourselves so we could take them to the police and return the banks' money," Tammy said, "We kept up a pretty good chase with them, until the explosion. When the explosion went off, we panicked and Danny slammed on the brakes and we crashed into a tree."

"Those explosions are one of the biggest mysteries to this whole mess," Batman said, "We haven't been able to figure out what causes them."

"We did," Tammy said, "When the explosion died down, we did a little investigating in the vicinity of which the explosion occurred."

"And we found this," Danny took a small tan stump out of his pocket and handed it to Robin.

"It looks like," Robin lifted the funny looking stump to his nose and inhaled, "A cigar stub."

"That's right," Tammy said, "The Joker's own manufactured supply of exploding cigars. I estimate one of those has the explosives of one stick of dynamite, and twice the amount of smoke."

"Which is exactly what you used to blast out of that room," Batman realized.

"Yes. After colliding with the tree, we were knocked out for a few hours and it wasn't until the sun started to set that we woke up, we realized that the car was wrecked, but not beyond driving…so we investigated and saw that path leading downhill and we took it to see what we could find. We couldn't find any tire tracks to determine where the car had gone, so we were stuck on a wild goose chase among the three roads for a good number of hours. When we finally figured out which way they had gone, which was here to this house, we decided to see what we could do.

"So they wouldn't know we followed them, Danny drove the car back to the top of the hill and stuck it in the bushes so it wouldn't be easy to find."

"That way they wouldn't know that we had found them until it was too late," Danny said.

"But walking from there to this house took us several hours and we walked all through the night."

"And we only arrived to the house a few hours before dawn," Danny added, "During which time we've found several of their tricks and traps set for you."

"So we stayed out of sight to figure out a plan on what to do with them, while finding out that they've done nothing but argue with each other for the past three days," Tammy explained, "So we figured it would be idealistic to set them up and figure a way to turn them against each other so we stood better chances of catching them."

"But then you showed up and we had to keep you out of the way," Danny said.

"Because Joker and the Penguin didn't know we were here and they also didn't know you were here," Tammy told them.

"So we hid your car where they wouldn't think to look for it, and we had to keep you out of sight and out of the way of the traps," Danny further explained.

"Because the Joker's had it set up that you can walk through them once and nothing happens but the second time you cross the same way, they work, arrows shooting out of the walls, guillotine blades in doorways, moving walls, opening floors, biting bear skin rugs," Tammy went into details.

"To say nothing of those electric hookups they gave the doors," Danny added, "Or the ones to the windows."

"So we disconnected the ones we could for opportunities to get out of the house, as well as in," Tammy said.

"But the Joker and Penguin realized the traps were becoming undone," Danny said, "So we tried to stay out of the way so they wouldn't find us."

"All the while finding out what their game plan was by listening through the dumbwaiter since most of the house was soundproofed when it was being converted to an actual house," Tammy said, "Left as it was when the owners ran out unexpectedly a while back."

"So we knew where they were going to be in the house, so we knew where to go and where not to get into sight," Danny added, "But then you came up and we had to make sure they didn't find you."

"We also had to make sure you didn't stumble into any traps yourself, and had we not done to you what we had, you _would've_, and the ones you just escaped because you were chasing us, are nothing short of terrifying," Tammy furthered the explanation.

"So you see, what we did was nothing of personal conflict against you, and we're not working with those two bumbling boobs either if that's what you were thinking…you haven't gotten too well acquainted with their traps yet, we know where most everything is."

"And not to doubt your ability to do the impossible, Batman," Tammy said, "But I do believe if you went on your instincts in this house, you would be dead already."

Danny nodded in agreement, "Believe us, we've done you the favor of springing a few fatal traps on ourselves and just narrowly escaped with our lives in tact."

Tammy had a sort of glare in her eye when she looked at Robin and said, "I'm sorry I had to crack you over the head."

Robin could feel a blush rising in his cheeks, "Apology accepted."

"But while all this has been going on, your family worries that you were kidnapped by the Joker and the Penguin because you've been gone so long and nobody was able to find you," Batman told them.

"Well we didn't mean to make them worry," Tammy said, "We would've told them we were allright but we haven't been able to get to a phone for three days."

"Well the important thing now is to get the two of you out of here," Batman said.

"You can't do that, we still haven't caught the Joker and Penguin yet," Danny said.

"That's right and once we do we can take them directly to the police," Tammy added.

"This is a serious matter, those two are professional criminals, and there's no guessing as to what they may do next," Robin said.

"They could try feeding you to the alligators," Danny said, "They've mentioned doing it to each other a few times before, I guess they've got some of them around here somewhere."

"No no no, Danny, they didn't say alligators, they said crocodiles," Tammy said, "I remember, Penguin told the Joker if he fell into one more of his tricks, he was going to feed Joker to the crocodiles."

"Well the best thing to do now is to get the two of you out of here and back home to your parents," Batman said, "We can take care of this."

"You'll do no such thing," Tammy said, "We didn't come all this way to miss out on the pièce de résistance now. We're staying."

"But you can't," Robin protested.

"We have, we can and we will," Tammy replied calmly, "I hate to be the one to break it to you, Batman, but when it comes to this case, you and Robin simply aren't needed here."

"Not needed? I don't think you realize what you're going up against," Batman told her.

"Oh but I believe we do," Danny replied, "And if we've managed to survive what we have before, I think we can survive whatever they throw at us now."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute!" Robin exclaimed.

"We're waiting," Tammy and Danny replied.

"If the Penguin and Joker didn't know we were here when we came in, then what about the basement? We were down there, and so were they, and they left the basement and we followed them through a secret staircase leading to the front hall," Robin remembered.

"No you didn't," Tammy told him, "You followed us."

"You?"

"Yes, there's a room in this house full of funny costumes and makeup and props, we found everything we needed to dress up as them, to lead you in our path instead of theirs," Danny explained.

"A clever trick, but what about the other girl?" Batman asked, "The one in the white dress, where is she?"

Danny curtsied and took Batman's hand and shook it, "It's nice to meet you."

"You?" Robin asked.

"My brother is a natural actor for both sides," Tammy said, "We decided if we could keep you guessing, you'd keep after us, instead of go off looking for the other two."

"A very crafty couple you two are," Batman acknowledged.

"That's us allright," Tammy said, "We're the best."

"But this is work that calls for professionals," Batman told them.

"I'm sorry, Batman, but your help is just not needed here," Tammy said.

"Now wait a minute," Robin started.

"I don't think you're going to get anywhere by trying to get us out of the picture," Danny said, "I think all four of us are going to have to work together on this one. You may know Joker and the Penguin, but we know the house and its layout."

"What do you think, Batman?" Robin asked.

"They may have a point," Batman said, "But I don't like it."

"Nobody said you had to like it," Tammy told him, "But it's what we have to do if we're going to catch them."

Danny pressed a lever in the wall and it opened up and they went back into the room.

"Where do we go from here?" Robin asked.

"Let's find out where they are," Batman said.

They left the room and listened, they couldn't hear the Joker or Penguin anywhere, meaning they had left the second floor.

Danny led the way as they found the dumbwaiter, opening it up they heard the Penguin and Joker talking down on the first floor.

"I don't care how they got here," the Joker said, "We're going to get them out of the picture one way or another."

"That'll be the day," the Penguin said, "All your booby traps have been going off before any boob steps on them."

"Well now I wouldn't say that, you came pretty close to being a foot shorter, Pengy."

The two started squabbling at each other and the rest of their conversation was unintelligible.

"They've been doing this for three whole days?" Robin asked.

"From what we've been able to gather," Danny answered.

"So they're downstairs, let's go get them," Tammy said.

Batman jerked her back, "Wait a minute, it could be dangerous."

"Dangerous? Who do you think you're talking to here?" Tammy asked him, "There's nothing and nobody alive that could scare me, let's go bag those two buzzards."

She broke free from his grip and started for the stairs with the three of them following her. They reached the top stair and once again the stairwell turned into a slide that took them down to the front room. Once they reached the first floor, neither the Joker nor the Penguin were anywhere in sight.

"Time to check the rooms again," Robin said.

"That's a good idea," Tammy took Robin by the arm and pulled him off to the west part of the house, "Danny, you and Batman check the kitchen through the cellar, we'll look up here."

They left before they could hear a response from either her brother or from Batman.

* * *

They came to one corridor that looked like an earthquake had hit it, pieces of the wall had been knocked out and part of a brick doorway had fallen to the floor. Tammy picked up one of the bricks as they entered the room. It wasn't much of a room, one doorway leading in, another leading out and not much else to see.

"This is an odd place to be," Robin said.

WHAM!

They turned around and saw the door had closed, they tried to reopen it but it wouldn't budge.

WHAM!

The door ahead of them had closed as well, and try as they might to push and thrash against it, it stayed in place, not so much as a splinter moving out of place.

From a speaker placed somewhere in the room, they heard the Joker's crazy laugh.

"Looks like we've got a couple of trespassers here," the voice said, "And you do know what happens to trespassers don't you?"

"Yeah, you cut off their feet," Tammy replied.

Robin wasn't sure they'd even get an answer, the whole broadcast sounded automated, but they did get a response.

"Correct, now I never read Darwin but I do believe we're a more evolved breed of creature now…and now two creatures in particular are about to get knocked flat."

Tammy grabbed Robin by the arm and jerked him behind her. "Get behind me, Robin," she said, "I'll protect you."

"You'll protect me?" Robin almost laughed, "Who's going to protect you?"

They heard a loud noise that sounded like gears turning, and they looked up and realized that they had walked right into a trap. The ceiling was coming down and the walls were closing in. They backed away from the walls and to the middle of the room, but the space around them was closing in quickly. Tammy, who still had the brick in her hand, wound her arm back like a baseball pitcher and sent it hurtling into the middle of the gear and pulley system. It caught, and held, and the ceiling and walls stopped. Both let out a collective sigh of relief.

"Quick thinking," Robin said.

"Oh drat," a voice said over the speaker, "I guess I'll just have to try another game. No matter, when my next turn comes, and it _will_ come I assure you two pests…you will not come equipped for the game plan."

There was that horrible laugh of his again as the voice started to die off from the speakers.

"Don't let him frighten you," Robin told her.

"Why should I be afraid?" Tammy asked, "I'm the _only_ sane person in a house full of lunatics."

Robin looked around for a sign that things were returning to normal. "I wonder how we get out of here now."

As if on cue, they found out when the floor dropped below them.

"Holy pitfall!"

The two found themselves on a slide heading for the floor below, or so they thought, but the slide extended further than just the basement, they found themselves somewhere even deeper down from the house than the cellar. Where they landed, they didn't know, but it was cold, wet, dark, and full of rocks.

"Where are we now?" Robin asked.

"That's one trap I hadn't encountered yet," Tammy said, "But…I think it's feeding time."

"What?"

Robin turned and saw what Tammy saw, the crocodiles that Joker and the Penguin had been talking about, six of them.

"Got any suggestions?" Tammy asked, "This ain't Cuba so we're in no position to pickle them for dinner."

With one hand, Robin kept a tight grip on her wrist so they didn't get separated. It was too dark to tell much about their surroundings so he held up his bat light to look for a possible escape.

Tammy held an arm up to shield her eyes from the light, "Blinding them won't do any good, if we stood any chance of fighting them we could try and exhaust them, they'd die from asphyxiation."

It looked bad for them, Robin had figured if he could throw his bat line up around something, they could get out of the line of attack from the crocodiles, but as far as he could tell there wasn't anything for the hook to hold onto. The crocodiles were starting to close in on him, Robin looked around for another alternative, there wasn't much in the way of a favor to them. Tammy seemed to be looking at the same thing he was, and she said, "Maybe if we could hit that top layer up there, it'll crash down on the crocodiles."

"It'd crash down on us too," Robin reminded her.

"That's a chance I'm willing to take if it means we don't get eaten," she said.

She picked up a rock and tossed it near the ceiling, and the dirt that covered it crumbled and part of it fell, and they saw light from above.

"What is that?" Tammy asked.

"It looks like a lift coming down," Robin said.

"Terrific."

By the time the lift came down low enough to hop onto, the crocodiles were about ready to have them for dinner.

"This way up," Robin said as he helped Tammy onto the lift.

The lift started moving upwards again and they pulled out of there, and not a moment too soon, the crocodiles started chomping at them.

When they got back to the first floor, they found Batman and Danny waiting for them.

"What happened?" Batman asked.

"Don't ask," Tammy replied as they stepped off the lift, "This is clearly one of the Joker's more sinister tricks, but we finally found those crocodiles they were talking about."

"Are you okay, sis?" Danny asked as he went over to her and tried to get a good look at her.

But she pushed him away, "Quit pawing me, you remind me of the Givens boy."

"Speaking of which," Robin said, "It was a good thing you picked up that brick or we could've been in serious trouble."

"No we wouldn't, we'd be dead," she replied, "Personally I consider that to be a difference in the two."

"Well, it looks like the games have begun," Batman said.

"No they haven't," Danny said, "They started a long time ago, right after my sister cracked Robin over the head with the milk bottle."

"Correct," Tammy said as she picked up a baton that leaned against the wall, "And now it is time for the next round."

Tammy walked into the dining room where a large gong stood, she wound the baton back and beat it against the gong.

"I say we check the upstairs again," Danny said, "They could be up there."

"And it would be just our luck," Tammy said, "They'd be planning to drop a piano on us or something."

"Upstairs it is, then," Batman replied, "Let's go."


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: I would like to apologize for the long delay in getting this next chapter up. Hope you all enjoy.

Chapter Five

The four of them headed back up the stairs and looked through the corridor, seeing nothing out of place. They decided to split up and start checking the rooms for something that might lead them to the Joker and the Penguin. Determined not to be kept out of the action, Tammy and Danny insisted one of them would go with each of the Caped Crusaders to keep an eye out for any traps they might be aware of. So Batman and Danny took one side of the floor, and Tammy and Robin took the other.

"They have to be around here somewhere," Tammy said, "That bird's too fat to slip down a rat hole and the clown's too obnoxious to keep his fat mouth shut."

"We'll find them," Robin replied as they went into one of the rooms.

"Truth be told I'm more interested in finding out where they've put all that money from the banks, Danny and I have searched this house from attic to basement and haven't been able to find it yet. It's like it disappeared into thin air."

"We'll find that too," Robin added as they went to the next room.

"Are you always so sure of yourselves?" Tammy asked.

"Are you?"

"What're you talking about?"

"I have never heard before anybody say that they could handle someone like the Joker and the Penguin by themselves."

"Well I'm not afraid of them. Is that so unusual?"

"I'm not sure; they've certainly given plenty of reason _for_ people to be afraid of them."

"Yes, and then they win," Tammy explained, "They feed on people's fear, that's why more people don't handle them like Danny and I do, because they're afraid of them. But if you're not afraid of them, they can't hold as much power over you."

"You sound very well put together for a 17 year old," Robin commented.

"You're not so bad yourself," she replied.

"But you're still putting yourselves at a great risk here."

"So are you, the only difference is you do it for a living," Tammy said.

"That's not the _only_ difference," Robin told her.

"Maybe not, but I know that you're just as much a human as I, and you can be killed just as easily as I, so why is it okay for you to take a bullet and not me? Because it's your job?"

Robin leaned back against a wall to answer and he felt something behind him, he turned around and both of them saw a panel in the wall open up.

"Holy hiding place," he said.

"Now this is one we've yet to come across," Tammy told him.

"Stay back," he said.

Robin went into the hidden room and found it to be no bigger than the size of a broom closet. There were no lights in it and the room was absolutely empty.

"I don't get—" he stopped in mid sentence when he heard something. He turned around and saw the panel closing back into place; he tried to get out before it shut him in but to no avail. He pounded on the wall trying to trigger something to move it again but it didn't work. He took a step back and screamed in shock and terror as he felt the floor go out beneath him.

* * *

High and low Batman and Danny had searched trying to find the Joker, the Penguin, and the stolen money, all with no luck. Much more to their surprise was that they hadn't triggered or walked into any new traps, which led them to believe the Joker and the Penguin were starting to slip.

"I never thought I'd see the day that the Joker forgot to set a trap," Danny said.

"Just what made you and your sister think you could take on Joker and the Penguin anyway?" Batman asked.

"Well I know it's not what you want to hear, Batman, but you and Robin aren't the only ones who find themselves capable of going after these crooks. So what if you've had a few more years to prepare for it? We're just as quick, and just as stubborn, and we'd sooner die fighting them than live in terror of them."

Off from another part of the house they heard Tammy as she came charging into the room, "Batman!"

"What's happened, sis?" Danny asked, "You look like you've seen a ghost!"

"It-it's Robin!" she cried, "He's gone!"

"What do you mean gone?" Batman asked.

"He and I were checking out one of the rooms and a panel opened in the wall, and he went in and the wall closed on him and he fell through the floor!"

"Jumping cornflakes!" Danny exclaimed, "Where could he go?"

"I don't know, I couldn't get the panel to open again but I heard him scream as he dropped through the floor," she replied.

"He could be down on the first floor," Danny said.

"Or the basement," she added.

"Or back with the…"

"Crocodiles!" the twins screamed in realization.

"Come on, we have to get him," Tammy said.

"You two stay here out of sight," Batman told them, "I'll get to the bottom of this."

They backed behind the door, holding each other around the necks as he left; they waited until they couldn't hear him anymore.

"Shall we go now?" Tammy asked.

"We shall," Danny replied.

Carefully they made their way out of the room and back to the dumbwaiter.

"You don't think he fell in there do you?" Tammy asked.

Danny opened the door and called down the chute, "If he was, he's not in there anymore. I'll take it down and see if I can find him."

"Be careful," she said.

"I should be telling you the same thing," Danny said.

"I'm always careful," she insisted.

"So am I."

Danny slipped in and started pulling himself down to the next floor, Tammy closed the dumbwaiter's door and went to the staircase and was just in time to see part of a black jacket disappear past a wall. She slid down the banister to take her down to the front room immediately and arrived just in time for the lid to slam on the piano.

_I've got you know you pompous bird_, she thought.

She ran to the piano, slipped onto the bench and started pounding away on the keys. The noise was a terrifically good ruckus, but the person in the piano wouldn't come out, the noise did however draw Batman out from the other room where he had been searching for Robin.

"What in the world do you think you're doing?" he asked.

Tammy quickly quit playing and stood up on the bench, "I came down here and saw the Penguin disappear, then I heard the piano slam, he's in there, and I got him, I got him, I got," she opened the lid to the piano and dropped it, "Uh oh."

At that exact time, Danny came running into the room also to find out what happened, "What's going on, sis?"

"I think I just stepped into another lulu," she replied.

She lifted the lid and both her brother and Batman looked on in surprise as they found, Robin stuck in the piano caught in a mess of the wires.

"Robin, what're you doing in the piano?" Danny asked.

"Uh…" Robin tried to untangle himself from the wires and partially succeeded and looked towards Tammy, "Having 'Turkey in the Straw' played on my forehead."

"Sorry," Tammy sheepishly replied, "I thought you were the Penguin. Besides, how'd you drop out of the closet into the piano?"

"I don't know, all I remember is the floor going out beneath me and I fell and when I landed, I was struck by something on the back of the head. The next thing I knew, I woke up in the piano with you pounding the keys on my face."

"Wait a minute, there's something screwy going on around here," Tammy said.

"And everything else we've been through today is normal, right?" Danny asked.

"Piano wire is metal wire…so why," she asked Robin, "Why aren't you cut up like a pizza?"

Robin looked down at his arms which were still caught in a mess of the wires and found what she said to be true, "I don't know."

"Let's get him out of there," Tammy said.

They both reached for him but Batman got to him first and helped him out of the piano, then they looked over the wiring.

"Looks like…plastic coated wires," Tammy said, "Why would anybody do that?"

"I wonder," Danny said.

"Wonder what?"

"Well, given all the hiding places in this house, and also given how old fashioned some of them are…I wonder if they have the piano fixed up that if you play it in a particular way, it opens up another room."

"I hadn't thought of that," she replied.

"Let me try," Danny slid into the bench and started playing.

While he played, everybody watched a different wall to see if it would open up, but none did. Everybody was starting to think this was a dead end when…

"Hey!" Danny exclaimed as he stopped playing, "What's going on?

The entire room started shaking violently and everybody was tilting from side to side.

"You genius," Tammy said in a not amused tone, "That piano doesn't trigger a hiding place…it triggers an earthquake! Got any more bright ideas?"

"We've got to stop this before we all get smashed to death in the process!" Danny exclaimed.

"Move over," Tammy shoved him off the bench and started pounding on the keys with her fists, trying to de-activate whatever it was that Danny triggered.

Nothing seemed to work, instead the earthquake grew worse and everybody started falling against everybody else and everything in the room, falling from one side to another and back again. Tammy pounded her fists over every area of the keys until finally her fist met with the right spot. The keys smashed and her hand got tangled in the wiring, but the earthquake stopped.

"Holy upheaval," Robin said, "That was terrible."

"It's no picnic for me either," Tammy replied, trying to get her fist unwound from the wires.

"I'll help you with that," Danny said, "Are you okay?"

"Fine, fine, I'm fine," she said as she finally got her hand loose, "But that ruckus is sure to draw out Joker and the Penguin now."

She got up from the bench, took one step forward and fell to the floor, saved only from hitting it by her brother catching her in time.

"Are you allright?" Robin asked.

"Fine…we're fine," she replied, "Just…a little tired, we haven't been able to eat since we came here."

"For three days?"

"Well it took us two days to get here and then even once we did…you can't trust anything they might have in their icebox, it might explode, or it might be poisonous," she explained.

Batman and Robin turned away from them to talk amongst themselves.

"We've _got_ to get them out of here," Robin said, "If we go into a final showdown with Joker and the Penguin, they won't stand a chance being caught in the middle of it."

"I know…and I can't fathom why we didn't think about it before," Batman said.

Robin seemed to pick up on what he was trying to say, "Commissioner Gordon?"

"Correct, we've got to contact them, but we mustn't let _them_ know about it, we've seen where they stand on this…it'll be much easier if we can take them by surprise once the police come."

Robin nodded and disappeared around a corner to make contact with the Gotham police.

Batman returned to the front room where the Mason twins waited to see what happened next.

"I can't believe it," Danny said, "They _had_ to have heard what was happening here, why haven't they come?"

"Maybe they hanged themselves," Tammy thought.

"We wish."

"There's something about this whole mess I'd like to figure out though," Batman said.

"What's that?" they asked.

"You said that when Robin and I first arrived here, Joker and the Penguin had no idea we were here."

"That's right, they didn't," Tammy said.

"Then what happened to the Batmobile? By the time Robin and I got to the roof, it was gone."

"That's an easy one," Danny said.

"I dare say so," she agreed, "We told you already but I guess you didn't hear us, we took it."

"_You_ took it?"

"Not very far, just enough that Joker and Penguin couldn't spot it and do anything to it themselves," Danny explained.

"Don't worry, _we_ didn't do anything to it either, we just put it where they can't find it," Tammy added.

"I can honestly say that I've never in my entire life met anybody like the two of you," Batman said.

"Really?" they asked.

"I don't know whether to be astonished, or furious."

"Why don't you just take 'confused' and call it a day?" Tammy asked.

At that time, Robin came around the corner and back into the room, "Batman."

Batman went over to Robin and asked if he had been able to contact the police, Robin replied he had but it would take them a while to arrive. Batman went back over to the kids and asked them, "Would you remember how to get to it?"

"Sure, but you can't get out of the house, not without getting electrocuted first," Tammy replied.

"We sprung a few of those traps but by now we can't remember which ones they were," Danny said, "And in any case by now Joker and the Penguin probably re-activated them again."

"But if we could do it once," she reminded him, "We could again, couldn't we?"

Just as she said that, they all heard something from above, it was the Joker over a speaker again, "That's what you think, ha ha ha, hoo hoo hoo."

"I'm starting to get _very_ tired of that laugh of his," Tammy said.

"I wonder what he meant," Danny thought.

They heard a click and Robin saw what he meant by that. "Arrows!" he exclaimed.

Everybody saw what he saw, which was that a panel had opened in the wall revealing 12 slots, and out of each slot was fired an arrow heading towards them.

They hit the floor just in time as the arrows zipped right over their heads, as they dared look up they saw that there were three sorts of arrows being shot at them, regular arrows, arrows with the heads set on fire, and arrows in which the Penguin had mentioned earlier, with large chattering teeth on the fronts.

Robin pulled Tammy over and out of the way of a low flying arrow and it hit the rug underneath them. Though it missed her, the chattering teeth went to work and started eating through the rug.

"Holy man eaters," he said as he saw what could have become of her.

"How many arrows can there be?" Danny asked.

"I don't know," his sister replied, "But we better find out what's holding them and stop it."

Batman was already ahead of her and he jumped onto a platform put in the middle of the wall above which the arrows were firing from. As the other three watched from the floor, they noticed that the flaming arrows had gone out before catching anything else on fire, and the chattering teeth arrows quit chattering when they ran out of things to bite into.

Meanwhile, Batman found a weak link in the wall's paneling that supported the arrow slots and pounded into it before anymore arrows came out, the whole panel cracked and fell apart, and with that it must have triggered something else because the arrows ceased.

"Is everybody okay?" Batman asked.

"If we aren't we won't know until later," Danny said.

"We've got to get out of here," Batman said.

"What?" Tammy asked, "And leave that midget pigeon and the painted idiot here?"

"Unguarded?" Danny added.

"With the stolen money? How hard did you fall?" Tammy asked, "Wait…wait, wait! How did you guys get into the house in the first place?"

"Through an open window on the top floor," Robin explained.

"If Joker and Penguin are upstairs," Danny said, "They've probably taken care of that."

"But wait a minute!" Robin had another idea, "We came in twice."

"Twice?" the twins repeated.

"That's right, we got thrown out of here earlier…when we were trying to catch you. We followed you downstairs, the stairs gave way, we slid into the bookcase, the bookcase turned around, and we found an exit in the room behind the bookcase."

"Well flying flip-mice," Danny said, "What're we waiting for?"

"We can't get out of here yet," Tammy reminded him, "We have to catch Joker and Penguin."

"But how?" Danny asked.

"We have to find them."

"A fine thing," Danny said, "We have to go find them, but we have to catch them before they catch us."

"Well what're we waiting for?" Robin asked, "Let's go."

"Right, come on!" Tammy grabbed him by the arm and dragged him after her.

"Wait!"

Tammy stopped dead in her tracks as she and Robin turned back.

"Robin and I will take the upstairs, you two stay down here and if you see anything, yell," Batman told them.

"I'll yell even if we don't find anything," Danny said.

Batman and Robin took the stairs and headed up to the second floor, leaving the twins in the living room. After they had gone, Danny grabbed his sister by the arm to get her attention.

"You seem to be getting pretty close to that bird, what's up?" he asked.

"Nothing," she replied, "Just a little fun…it's not everyday you get to push around a famous hero, you know."

"Well you better be careful," he warned her, "Play with fire too long and you're going to get burnt."

"Now you're starting to sound like Batman," she said to her brother.

"So what do we do now?" Danny asked.

"We should go up after them," she said.

"I know, but they wouldn't like it if we did."

"They're not liking anything we do so what difference does it make?" Tammy asked.

"You might have a point."

Their hearts stopped when they heard a cold, cackling, and close laugh.

"The Joker!" Danny acknowledged, "Batman!"

"He can't hear you," Tammy said, "The place is sound proof."

"What now?" Danny asked.

Tammy looked up and saw a large, fancy chandelier that didn't appear to be hanging up by much. She had an idea, she picked up a brass vase and threw it at the chandelier, hoping to break it to fall on the Joker and Penguin, but it didn't work. Instead it triggered something revealing the chandelier was coming down, almost as if by some sort of control.

"Looks like our way out," she said, "Come on!"

They grabbed hold of the chandelier and it lifted back up just in time as Joker and the Penguin grabbed for them but just missed them. The two put together equaled a weight they weren't sure the chandelier could possibly hold and they swung on it as it went back to the ceiling.

"What do we do now?" Danny asked.

"Well we can't stay up here all day, we'll have to find a way off without jumping," Tammy replied.

"And we better find it fast before they come up after us," Danny said.

Tammy looked down and saw the Joker and the Penguin looking up at them, and she knew they were planning something. Looking up, she realized that the ceiling for the chandelier was still a good couple feet underneath the top of the stairs, but…

"Maybe if we swing it to the side hard enough, we can reach the banister," she thought.

"If it doesn't break first," he replied.

"If it does, we'll break our fall on _them_," she told him, "Now let's try it."

Trying to get their weights to go together they swung to the side with full force, but it didn't reach far enough, they tried again and got a bit closer, on the third try they jumped off the chandelier and grabbed hold of the banister.

They heard the Joker laugh beneath them. "We've got them now, Pengy, let's go."

"If we could just find out what makes the stairs go," Tammy said, "We could send them down before they get us."

They were trying to shift their weight over the banister to get onto the stairs but had no luck and so were only hanging by their weakening grips.

"What now?" Danny asked.

Tammy looked below them and came to a conclusion, "It looks like dropping might be our best choice."

Danny turned towards the foot of the stairs and looked, "Hey, they ain't coming up after us, what's going on?"

They heard something, and then they felt something. Penguin had activated something that was making the banister drop down into the side of the staircase.

"Now what do we do?" Danny asked.

Clearly dropping was exactly what Joker and Penguin had in mind for them, so if they did, it meant trouble for them.

"Only one thing I can figure," Tammy said.

"What?"

The banister got almost too low for them to hold onto any further and they took it as a chance to try swinging over it and onto the stairs, it worked and they ran up the stairs and found the rest of the banister leading along the hallway also disappearing into the floor. They realized that if anybody were to be backed against where the banister had been, instead they would plummet a good 15 feet or so, most likely to their death, so they ran away before they could be caught.

"Batman!" Danny called in a panicked tone.

"Robin!" Tammy called in a less anxious voice.

They found the Caped Crusaders coming down from the third floor, "What's happened? What's going on?" Batman asked.

"We found them," Tammy answered, "They're coming up this way."

Batman and Robin pushed past them to meet the sinister fiends at the top of the stairs, only they were nowhere to be found.

"Holy hallucinations, what now?" Robin asked.

Tammy and Danny, hearing this, walked up behind Batman and Robin. "It doesn't make any sense," Danny said, "They were right behind us."

They got their answer when they heard something from behind, and they looked just in time to see the Joker swing out from behind a corner and at them. Robin pushed the twins out of the way so Joker couldn't get at them. But instead of he and Batman taking on the Joker, the Penguin also came out of hiding and came at Robin with an umbrella with a rotating and severely sharpened point.

Danny dragged himself and his sister against a wall so they could see the sight laying out before them. Batman and Joker both had each other around the throats and were trying to choke each other into unconsciousness, both seemed equally matched in the battle, and Robin kept jumping and flipping back to avoid becoming shish-kabob.

"So this is the way the world ends," Danny said.

"For us, anyway," Tammy replied, "Maybe Batman was right but I still say we did the right thing by staying…even though now it's blown up in our faces."

During it all, everybody's focus seemed to go off of the two of them, and it was then that Tammy realized the ball was in their court, no…the bullet.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Danny saw her pull the gun out of her jeans and she pointed, but she didn't know whether to aim at the Joker, or the Penguin, who had set a considerable distance between them.

"What're you doing with that?" he asked her.

"Aw…I was just going to give them what they have coming to them. We're still here, we might as well help," she said.

Exhaustion was becoming a winning battle with both of them, and both of them knew it, but only one of them would admit it. Right now Danny had a good idea that his sister couldn't pull the trigger if her life depended on it, but she'd sooner die fighting than admit it.

"Come on," he pulled at her elbow, "We've got to get out of here."

She pushed him away, "You can go if you want but I'm staying right here…Batman and Robin aren't going into this alone."

"Tammy."

She turned to him, "If you want to help, bring the car around, we're going to need it."

A bulb seemed to go on over his head, "Right! I'll be right back."

"Famous last words," she commented.

After he had gone she tried to regain her focus on who to shoot. Now the deck appeared stacked in their favor, the pair of battling duos had gotten closer together, and the Joker and Penguin were practically back to back in attacking Batman and Robin. The hammer was cocked back, her finger at the trigger, she took aim and fired. A long rule in handling a gun, you _never_ pulled the trigger, you _squeezed it_, she squeezed the lever so hard if it had any life in it at all she would've killed it.

A shot rang out, who it hit she couldn't tell but the fighting ceased and all eyes went to her. With an almost inhuman speed about her, but it played out like a slowed down movie reel, she cocked back the hammer again and squeezed at the trigger a second time, this time with the muzzle aimed straight at the Joker's face. The bullet should have passed straight through the bridge of his mouth, but she never saw it.

Something happened and she was knocked back against the wall, she dropped the gun and slumped to the floor. Somebody stood over her, through the corner of one eye she saw it was the Joker, he was reaching for his gun but when she thought he was going to fire, something else happened. She opened her eyes and saw that Robin had jumped him from behind and the fighting had resumed. The Joker was trying to throw Robin off his back, Penguin was trying to beat him off the Joker's back and Batman was trying to knock out the Penguin.

Robin reached for his batarang but his hand was quickly met by the Penguin's umbrella, it smashed his hand and the Joker took that opportunity to remove his utility belt entirely and throw it away. Tammy lay where she was, unresponsive but not yet unconscious, she watched the scene unfold before her, waiting for the right time to strike. She got it when the Joker mistakenly took a step back towards her, she swung her foot forward, knocking his out from under him and knocking him flat on his back, and she got up as he went down.

"Get out of here!" Robin told her.

She made for the stairs and disappeared, simultaneously Batman had the Penguin cornered at the dumbwaiter, with a split second's luck, he got the door open and sent the Penguin down the shaft. He turned back to Robin to find that he had succeeded in knocking the Joker out cold.

"You got him?" Batman asked.

"Yeah."

"I'll go take care of the Penguin."

Batman took a quick detour to the first floor and Robin looked around for something to tie up the Joker with until the police arrived. However, the Joker had other plans, he sprang back up like a punch balloon and knocked Robin in the jaw with a good left hook. Robin doubled back and tripped and his back met with the floor. He kicked the Joker and quickly got back to his feet, but was backed into a corner. Wrestling loose from the Joker's hold, Robin slipped too far and met with the end of the floor where the banister used to be and he fell over the edge.

At the last second, he grabbed onto the edge and held on, looking down he saw that the fall would be a painful, and possibly fatal one, especially now that he had lost his batline with his utility belt, and the only thing he had to look forward to was falling a good 15 feet. He thought if he could pull himself up far enough, he could get back on the floor, but the Joker saw this and took advantage of the situation. He walked over to the edge and stomped on Robin's hands, the pain was intense but he wouldn't let go.

"A stubborn one, well I guess I'm just going to have to scrape you off like a wad of old gum," he chuckled sinisterly.

What the Joker didn't realize, and what Robin was just finding out, was that Tammy had never gone downstairs when Robin told her to, but rather she had gone into hiding on the second floor, and now that his life was in peril, she came around the corner and as the Joker tried to pry Robin's fingers off the edge of the floor, Tammy came up behind the Joker and kicked him in the seat of his pants.

It sent the Joker flying over the edge and he went crashing down 15 feet where he made an indention in the lower hall floor. Robin's gloved grip was slipping, but Tammy grabbed hold of him just in time, she grabbed his hand with hers and with her other hand grabbed his opposite shoulder and pulled him back up to the second floor.

"Are you allright?" she asked him.

"Y-yeah, I think so. Thanks."

She shrugged her shoulders, "You're the heroes in this. How could I let the hero lose? So i was wrong, your services _were_ needed here after all. I'm sorry."

Batman heard the crash and came to see what had happened and he couldn't believe the sight before him. Joker laid sprawled out on the floor, having fallen from the top of the stairs, Robin and Tammy sitting where the banister was, looking down on both of them.

"What happened?" he asked.

"This…" she said, "This is the intermission before resuming to the film's climax…is he dead?"

Batman turned the Joker over onto his back and checked, "No, he's alive, just unconscious."

"Oh drat," Tammy snapped her fingers, "Well, we'll just have to try harder next time I suppose. Where's the bird?"

"Tied up at the moment…where'd your brother go?" Batman asked.

"He went to get the Batmobile…and I better make sure he brings it around allright, excuse me." Tammy got up and went back to one of the rooms and disappeared out of a window that had been smashed earlier, and the 200 volt trap de-activated.

Robin returned to the center of the second floor hallway and collected his utility belt and batline, while simultaneously trying to calm down his breathing, and his heartbeat. Through the corner of his eye he saw the banister spring back up out of the floor.

"Robin, are you allright?" Batman asked.

Robin almost went down the stairs but remembering what would happen, he slid down the banister and met Batman at the foot of the stairs, "I'm fine."

"The police will be here soon, we better get these two collected," Batman told him.

They turned around and were in for yet another surprise as they found the Joker gone, leaving only the indention in the floor.

"Holy disappearing act, Batman!" Robin exclaimed, "What's going on here?"

Batman ran back to where he had tied up the Penguin with his batline and Robin followed, but to their horror, the Penguin was also gone and the only thing left was the batline.

Robin turned back to the front hall and saw something. "The door!"

Batman turned his head back around and saw what Robin saw, the front door was ajar, the trap had to have been sprung.

"Let's see if we can catch them."

They raced to the door, out the door and off the front porch and saw a most unwelcoming sight before them, another explosion, no doubt the work of another exploding cigar, courtesy of the Joker.

Through the smoke and the flames they saw two figures come forth, Penguin and the Joker, and they had come well prepared. The Penguin had with him a Tommy gun fashioned after one of his umbrellas and the Joker was approaching with the genuine article of a Thompson sub full automatic with a drum magazine.

"You thought you'd get the drop on us," the Joker cackled, "Well my friends, it looks like _we_ will have the last laugh."

It was then that they heard something, and it was a sound Batman and Robin were quite familiar with, it was the sound of the Batmobile racing to the scene.

Joker and Penguin also heard the noise and turned back towards the smoke of the explosion in time to see the Batmobile speed through it and come after them, with Danny behind the wheel and Tammy at the side. Joker and Penguin took off in different directions, but Danny hit a curve and Tammy reached out and picked up the Penguin by the back of his jacket.

Batman and Robin were dumbstruck by the scene before them and neither knew what to do or what to say. Danny steered the Batmobile after the Joker while Tammy kept the Penguin hanging from the side, kicking and struggling.

"Put me down!" he demanded, "Put me down, you rotten beasts."

"You got it," Tammy said, and she threw him at the Joker, in so bowling him over and both hit the ground. Danny turned another curve and stopped, right in front of Batman and Robin.

"I told you we didn't do anything to it," Tammy said.

They got out of the car and walked away from both the Dynamic Duo and the criminal pair. Off in the distance they heard sirens approaching, the police had arrived. Now that the battle was over, the villains fought and captured, and justice was to be served, it was only now that Batman saw a slight hint of fear in the children.

"I guess this is it," Danny said, "Once the cops find out what we did…"

"First following Joker and the Penguin, then breaking and entering, then grand theft auto, vandalism, destruction to private property, then making a mockery of Batman and Robin, to say nothing of assault and battery with a milk bottle, and attempted murder with a deadly weapon," Tammy added.

"They'll no doubt arrest us," Danny said.

"And cart us off to jail," Tammy added.

"And keep us there for life or longer," Danny agreed.

"Well, it's probably more than we deserve. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted," Tammy said.

The two grabbed hold of each other and awaited the consequences. Batman and Robin looked at each other and without a word between them both knew they didn't have the heart to let these kids suffer the consequences for only doing what they thought had to be done to stop the villains, and what they thought they had to do in order to stay alive and out of the clutches of Joker and the Penguin.

"Don't worry," Batman told them, "The police aren't going to know anymore than is necessary."

"It's just too bad after everything we've been through," Robin said, "We still weren't able to find the bank's money."

"Oh we forgot to tell you, we found it," Tammy said, "When we were de-activating one of the traps at the windows, we found it."

"You did? Where?"

"In the ceiling panels, come on, we'll show you."

Robin looked back to Batman, indecisive if he should stay and help keep an eye on Joker and Penguin, or go with them and retrieve the banks' money.

"Go on," Batman said, "The police are here."

Robin nodded and followed them back into the house. Now that the traps had been sprung, they didn't have to worry about the stairwell turning into a slide when they went up or down. They took the stairs two at a time until they reached one of the rooms on the second floor at the end of the hall. Danny turned on the light and Robin saw two of the ceiling tiles out of place and large bank bags sticking out with the money falling to the floor.

"Holy money pits," Robin said, "What a clever place to hide stolen money, right where nobody would look."

"This ceiling's a false piece, hung lower and been reinforced to hold much more weight in between it and the real ceiling than anybody might think," Danny explained.

"Whereas we checked floors, furniture and hidden rooms for it, they stuck it above our heads, like raw meat to make the lions jump," Tammy said.

Danny climbed on a desk to reach the paneling and started heaving out and dropping large bank bags full of money. "It should all be here."

"How much have the police said had been stolen?" Tammy asked Robin.

He couldn't remember, the only thing that could register in his mind was that it was well into the multi-million dollar mark.

"Hey Robin," Tammy said.

"Yes?"

"I…well I want to thank you guys for not turning us over the police after everything we've done…and once again I'm sorry about cracking you over the head."

Robin grinned sheepishly as he responded, "Don't worry about it."

* * *

Down on the ground, the police had arrived in three cars and a paddy wagon, and just in case, one ambulance as well. The police collected Joker and the Penguin and were loading them up in the paddy wagon when the Joker turned to Batman and said to him. "You know something, Batsy? Those kids are crazier than we are."

He cackled and chuckled and roared with laughter as the police shut them in.

"Batman," Commissioner Gordon said, "_Where_ are the Mason children?"

"They're collecting the money from the bank robberies as we speak," Batman said.

"Are they allright?"

"They're a little shaken up, and exhausted, and malnourished, but they should be allright."

"I sincerely hope so," Gordon replied, "We alerted their mother and she's well on the way and should be here any minute now."

The front door came open and out came Robin, followed by Tammy and Danny each hauling out two or three bank bags.

"This ain't all of it," Tammy told him, "There's more."

Two policemen went in next to bring the rest of the money out, with Robin leading them to the room. The twins stood for a moment staring at each other, then collapsed to the ground alongside each other.

"What's happened to them?" Commissioner Gordon asked.

"We're expiring, that's what," Danny answered.

Commissioner Gordon went to speak with the paramedics about getting them loaded up in the ambulance as soon as possible. Robin and the policemen returned with the rest of the stolen money, and it was at that time that they all heard an unusual noise off in the distance. Within a mere matter of seconds it drew closer and they saw it for what it was. A fire red roadster was barreling down the road to the house. Tammy opened one eye to see the oncoming vehicle and when she saw it, she grabbed her brother by his hair and forced him to look up too.

The car came to a screeching halt and out of the driver's side stepped Nora Mason, seen yet again in her red dress and long mink fur coat.

"_Where_ are my babies?!" she screamed.

The children got themselves to their feet and they ran into her arms.

"Oh my babies, my beautiful babies," she said, "You both look like death, are you allright?"

"We're fine, mama," Danny answered.

Nora put her arms around her children as Batman came up to them. "Batman, I'd like to thank you for finding my children…and, I'd like to apologize for the way I acted last night."

"Understandable, ma'am, but these two should be taken to the hospital as quickly as possible to make sure they're allright, there's really no way of telling what all they've had to endure these last few days."

She nodded, "Oh my beautiful babies…I hope they didn't give you _too_ much trouble, Batman, I know they don't do well with authority figures, that's a hereditary problem."

"Well I will say this…in a few years I could very easily see these two working with the police, given the way they handled Joker and Penguin today."

"What?" Nora asked.

"Us? Working with the police?" Danny asked.

"Of course you would have to improve your technique into a more subtle approach," Batman said.

"Or maybe in a few years we'll be working with _you_," Tammy replied.

The very mention of that idea stopped Batman cold and he couldn't respond. Commissioner Gordon along with the paramedics came up to Nora and her children.

"Allright, ma'am," he said, "We'll be taking your children off to the hospital now."

Nora responded, "These are _my_ children and if anybody's going to take them to the hospital, it's going to be me."

The two sidestepped into the other side of the roadster and Nora went around to the driver's side and drove them out of there. After a couple hours of investigating the house and everything in it, everybody was taken to the police station, where another investigation would begin and last for several more hours.

* * *

Three hours later, Joker and Penguin were restored to Gotham City prison, the stolen money was returned to the banks, and Batman and Robin took a detour to the hospital where they found out the Mason twins were being held for the remainder of the day and overnight to make sure they were allright.

The nurse at the front desk took them to the room where they were staying…they and their mother had all been so stubborn, the only way to calm them down was to put both of them in the same room. The nurse opened the door and sighed, "These two are really working our last nerves around here."

"Did the doctors find anything out of the ordinary wrong with them?" Batman asked.

"They took some tests to see if they had ingested or absorbed anything…found traces of gunpowder on the girls' hands."

It was questioned if that discovery were to be made, what was to be said. Batman already had prepared a story on how the Joker had drawn a gun and took aim but she wrestled with him for the gun and it went off during the struggle. It was enough to satisfy the police and Batman decided they didn't really need to know she took a pot shot at Joker, even though that was probably something everybody in Gotham City wanted to do.

Now the Caped Crusaders looked at the scene before them. When the doctors weren't looking, the twins had pushed their beds together so as to improvise for a double bed, Tammy sprawled out like a murder victim using a teddy bear as an extra pillow, and Danny had fallen asleep with a pair of sunglasses on, reading a comic book. The nurse cleared her throat and the two slowly came around, Tammy first and she looked ahead.

"Danny, look!" She grabbed him by the hair again and forced him to turn towards the door.

"Wow…" Danny tried to sit up and look somewhat presentable.

The nurse left and shut the door behind her, leaving the Dynamic Duo to speak with the two.

"They found the nitrate, didn't they?" Tammy asked.

"They did," Batman replied.

"So am I going up the river?" she asked.

"No."

"That's a relief."

"We thought you'd like to know that Joker and Penguin are back in prison, the banks have their money back, and everything looks to be in the clear," Batman said.

"So you got it straightened out that we _weren't_ kidnapped, right?" Danny asked.

"Yes, though it took a while for the police to comprehend your story…two kids taking on Gotham's worst isn't an everyday occurrence and it's very hard to credit."

"How long until you're released?" Robin asked.

"The doctors want to keep us overnight for surveillance," Tammy said.

"Not surveillance, observation they called it, they want to keep us overnight for observation," Danny told her.

"Well it's the same thing, ain't it?"

"Ain't? You mean isn't."

"Well Batman," Tammy said, "Robin…I can't say it hasn't been fun because this was certainly one experience I'll never forget…and truth be told I don't think any of us will anytime soon."

"That's my sister," Danny said, "She could have fun at a funeral."

"Though I suppose I should apologize," she added, "For what I said earlier about not needing your help."

"You two certainly surprised us at how capable you were at handling Joker and Penguin. Not too many people could have handled the whole ordeal as well as you did," Robin said.

"Well, maybe Batman was right and there is a future for us working with the police," Danny thought.

"Maybe," Tammy said as she looked at the Caped Crusaders, "But I still think we have a better shot working with you two."

Neither Batman nor Robin said a word, but a horrible idea came to mind. Yes, they could very well see these two kids, in the matter of only a few years, trying to work with them, only with their methods far less subtle or merciful, and the idea that these two could someday become raging vigilantes, scared both of the Caped Crusaders beyond any words in the English language, so they said nothing and just smiled and wished the two teenagers well as they left to return to police headquarters.

The End


End file.
